diff --git a/src/node/index.js b/src/node/index.js
index c21231ad..b5f45458 100644
--- a/src/node/index.js
+++ b/src/node/index.js
@@ -709,6 +709,16 @@ Request.prototype.request = function () {
     // get the protocol
     protocol = `${protocol.split('+')[0]}:`;
 
+    if (!url.hostname) {
+      // the socket path wasn't percent-encoded, so the URL parser folded it
+      // into the pathname and left us with nothing to connect to. Bail out
+      // here instead of silently falling back to a plain host request.
+      this._unixSocketError = new Error(
+        'Invalid unix socket URL. A unix socket path must be percent-encoded (replace "/" with "%2F"), e.g. http+unix://%2Ftmp%2Fmy.sock/path'
+      );
+      return;
+    }
+
     // get the socket path
     options.socketPath = url.hostname.replace(/%2F/g, '/');
     url.host = '';
@@ -985,6 +995,8 @@ Request.prototype._end = function () {
       new Error('The request has been aborted even before .end() was called')
     );
 
+  if (this._unixSocketError) return this.callback(this._unixSocketError);
+
   let data = this._data;
   const { req } = this;
   const { method } = this;
diff --git a/test/node/unix-sockets.js b/test/node/unix-sockets.js
index a443079a..8eb4bd15 100644
--- a/test/node/unix-sockets.js
+++ b/test/node/unix-sockets.js
@@ -72,6 +72,25 @@ describe('[unix-sockets] http', () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe('[unix-sockets] invalid path', () => {
+  if (process.platform === 'win32') {
+    return;
+  }
+
+  it('rejects with a clear error instead of hitting the wrong host', (done) => {
+    // the socket path here has literal slashes instead of being
+    // percent-encoded, so the URL parser can't tell it apart from a path
+    request
+      .get(`http+unix://${httpSockPath}/request/path`)
+      .end((error, res) => {
+        assert(error);
+        assert(/percent-encoded/.test(error.message));
+        assert.strictEqual(res, undefined);
+        done();
+      });
+  });
+});
+
 describe('[unix-sockets] https', () => {
   if (process.platform === 'win32') {
     return;